Lip Sync Practice Tasks

As practice for our music video, we had to start to create the first 30 seconds of a music video. The music we did it to was Its Not Unusual - Tom Jones. We shot difference scenes & different locations & then transfered the footage to the editing stations & briefly edited it to be in time with the song. As you can see we had to make sure that the singing matched up with the song perfectly for it to look effective. This was a helpful task as it taught us more about lip syncing & was good practice.

Final Presentation

We showed this presentation to our class and talked through our ideas and to get some feedback that we will use to improve our music video.

Music Video Analysis 3

Title: Right There
Artist: Nicole Scherzinger
Album: Killer Love
Producer: Jim Jonsin
Genre: Pop
Release Date: 6th June 2011 (UK)

This music video for Nicole Scherzinger's 'Right there' demonstrates what is known in the media industry as 'the male gaze'. This describes the way in which the camera scans up and down the female body as if from the perspective of a heterosexual man.

Although similar to voyeurism, the male gaze, introduced by Laura Mulvey, seeks to suggest the power of men over women, whereas voyeurism focuses on the sexual activity. There is evidence of both theories in this video.

Gender and representation has a major influence in the video. For example the whole cast of dancers are female, and throughout the video no males are shown. The song itself is metaphorically all about sex.

The following 5 screens grabs are all within the first 9 seconds of the video. They all show Nicole in explicit sexually associated and revealing positions which could be perceived as dehumanisation. 

The screen grabs below show the downward movement of the camera on Nicole further supporting the male gaze.

There is an amplifying relationship between lyrics and visuals during the video, for example when Nicole sings 'put your hands on my body' she is shown dancing backwards with her hands on her stomach.

A second example is 'me like the way he go down down down down...' is accompanied by Nicole bending down with her legs apart. Matching visuals and lyrics enable the audience to engage further in the song because they are exposed to both phonological and visual information which requires less deep thought processing.

In this shot the camera is looking slightly down on Nicole which could symbolizse a males perspective because males tend to be larger in height in comparison to females. It could also suggest he is superior to her as he is higher up. This joined with her open armed gestures and lack of clothing causes her to appear like his slave.

The video shows numerous shots in which the audience literally can't even see the dancers faces, focusing their attention on the girls figures.

Another sexual reference is specific dance moves with the girls legs wide open.

The majority of video is of the star, Nicole Scherzinger, this consists of lots of close ups of her to highlight 'orgasmic' facial expressions.

Music Video Analysis Improved

Don Diablo & Example – Hooligans

Year – 2009

Director - Ben Newman

Label – Data Records

This music video is both performance & narrative, but it is mainly performance throughout. A brief introduction of about 30 seconds sets up the story for the music video, where a rude boy is queuing outside a club & pushes to the front & then gets chucked in by the bouncers. This then continues to the club where the artists are performing. According to Andrew Goodwin’s points in ‘Dancing in the distraction factory’, this music video has a relationship between the lyrics & the visuals. For example when Example sings ‘loose your Rolex rip your t-shirt’ he pulls at his t-shirt, which directly relates to what he is singing. He also sings ‘where’s all the hooligans’ as all the people in the club are jumping around in the background which would suggest he is referring to the ravers at the club as hooligans as they are going crazy & all look wild & rowdy. The lyrics of the song are about people going out raving & so the video is of people at a rave, which therefore directly links to the lyrics.

A very common camera technique used throughout this music video was a point-of-view shot. This was effective in this video, as it didn’t make the music video look staged; it looked like the cameraman was part of the crowd bouncing around with the other ravers§. The video has also got good mise-on-scene as in every shot you can see that they are in the same club, it flows well & it consistent with what is going on within the video as everyone is raving & enjoying themselves.

Characteristics of the electronic dance genre include danceable electronic beats & often shouting. It also has a larger focus on the beat, & less focus on the actual music notes. This song conforms to all these characteristics & it works well.

The music also relates to the visuals because the edits are very fast & snappy like the music is which makes it interesting to watch. The editors have also managed to make perfect cuts with the beat & the ravers are also jumping to the beat so it looks realistic. Also, in the background of the music there is a loud horn often being played during the song. At about 2:32 minutes in we see a boy pressing the air horn which therefore illustrates the visual to the music.

These horns are often associated with the police & craziness & as the song is about hooligans is fits in well. Also, as the music turns to just the horns, you see clips of girls holding their bleeding ears which amplifies how loud the music is.

All these things amplify the relationship between the music & visuals & make the music video more exciting & interesting to watch.

Andrew Goodwin’s fourth point in ‘Dancing in the distraction factory’ states that the record labels demand lots of close ups of the artists in their music videos. This music video follows this point, as there are over 55 close up shots of Example & Don Diablo throughout. The camera often does straight cuts from the artists to the crowd as well as to other shots. Example & Don Diablo come across as wild ravers with a lot of energy & have a lot of fun performing & partying. This ties in well with the type of music they make. These are also sometimes seen as stereotypical characteristics of young people now days. This music video could also be seen as a negative representation of teenagers as it would suggest that they like to get drunk & go raving. They make them look out of control & like troublemakers. For example, when they are in club & a boy gets bottled, when Example sticks his middle finger up at the camera & when the boy at the beginning is rude to everyone.

Audience Survey - powerpoint presentation

   

Fantasy & Lies Productions

LENKA – THE SHOW ღ

Ella Trainor

Georgia Surridge

Maisie Linnane

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MALE          FEMALE

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1.    Initial comments on our idea….

2.   Do you believe our idea is accomplishable?

3.   In reference to issues with our idea, are there any changes you would suggest?

4.  Would you want to watch our completed music video?

5.  What do you think a typical pop music video should include?

6.  What was your favourite idea?

Thank you for your time J

Group Meeting 4

Today we completed our timeline for our song. We are now focused on completing our powerpoint which we will be presenting to the class next week.

Characteristics of pop music

• It aims to appeal to a general audience, rather than a particular sub-culture or ideology.
• It has an emphasis on recording, production & technology over live performance.
• It has a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments.
• Much of pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or uses a dance-orientated beat or rhythm.
• The main medium of pop is the song which is often between 2.5-3.5 minutes long.
• Is is generally marked by a consistent & noticeable rhythmic element.
• It has a mainstream style but traditional structure.
• Common variants include the verse-chorus form & the thirty-two-bar form.
• It features a noticeable rhythmic element, melodies or hooks.
• The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes such as love & romantic relationships.
• It has a focus on the individual song or singles, rather than on albums.
• The typical instruments used in pop music are guitars, drums, piano, keyboard, drum machine, sequencer etc.
• It usually is recorded & listened to on the radio or at home.
• The song lyrics often deal with social & young peoples problems.
• Pop music varies according to fashion.